Labor History Today
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Gripping stories of the historic battles for worker rights and how they fuel today's struggles.
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Labor history, justice, and Jesuits
All Who Labor podcast host Anna Nowalk speaks with Georgetown University’s Brother Ken Homan about the distance between what we say we believe and how those values are lived out, particularly as it relates to the Jesuits. The conversation stretches from topics further in the past, such as slavery, to more current labor activism at universities. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1833. That was the day that the Oberlin Collegiate Institute was founded in north central Ohio. Today, it's known as Oberlin College. The college was the project of two Presbyterian ministers, John J. Seifert and Philo Stewart.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
@AllWhoLabor #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory
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Nov 26, 2023
The Leadville Irish Miners’ Memorial
"In Ludlow, the workers were killed by bullets and kerosene; here they died from poverty. The names are illuminated at night. People are claiming the memorial. They're leaving items, artifacts, relics, coins, stones, gifts for the dead, telling them that we see them."
The average age of the people in the pine boxes was 23 years old; half of them were children under 12. 70 percent were from Ireland. On today’s show we travel to the Evergreen Cemetery in Leadville, Colorado; where on September 16th a new memorial was unveiled commemorating the 1,100 unmarked graves of Irish workers and their families who fled the famine in their homeland to toil deep in the Colorado copper mines and who died penniless in the Promised Land. Today's show comes to us from the Labor Exchange radio show, Colorado's only labor focused radio show on KGNU Community Radio (88.5 FM / 1390 AM) On this week’s Labor History in Two: Newspaper Printers Quit!
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @aflbobby @IrishCentral
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Nov 19, 2023
Art/Work: Women Printmakers of the WPA
Virginia Anderson, Curator of American Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art walks us through the BMA’s brand-new exhibit, Art/Work: Women Printmakers of the WPA, which explores the importance of women artists many of whom are unknown today, yet who captured the human faces of industrial and domestic labor and its inherent racial, gendered, and class inequities while they used their art to support important reforms led by the era’s growing communist and socialist movements. From the Labor Heritage Power Hour radio show, which airs Thursdays at 1p ET on WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, DC. Singer-songwriter Si Kahn finds poetry in the many names for the third shift, that overnight work period that is the bane of existence for so many. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1936; that was the day that workers at the General Motors plant in Atlanta, Georgia participated in a sit down strike.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @artbma
Artwork: Harlem Dancers, by Elizabeth Olds
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Nov 12, 2023
Under the Iron Heel: Repressing the IWW and free speech
Yesterday, the IWW -- the Industrial Workers of the World -- hosted a dedication ceremony for a new monument in Centralia, Washington. The Centralia Tragedy, also known as the Centralia Conspiracy and the Armistice Day Riot, was a violent and bloody incident that occurred in Centralia on November 11, 1919, during a parade celebrating the first anniversary of Armistice Day. The conflict between the American Legion and the IWW members resulted in six deaths, others being wounded, multiple prison terms, and an ongoing and especially bitter dispute over the motivations and events that precipitated the conflict. Both Centralia and the neighboring town of Chehalis had a large number of World War I veterans, with robust chapters of the Legion and many IWW members, some of whom were also war veterans. “For almost 100 years the Legion Statue, the Sentinel, has told one side of the story,” says the IWW. “It states that the four Legion members depicted were ‘slain while on peaceful parade’. The IWW memorial counters that narrative with the statement that the IWW victims were ‘Defending Their Union Hall’” Today’s show, which comes to us from the Tales from the Reuther Library podcast, also concerns the IWW. Ahmed White explains how American industrialists and government officials used violence and legal maneuverings to stultify the IWW and to silence its members in the early twentieth century. White teaches labor and criminal law at University of Colorado Boulder and is the author of Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers, which received the International Labor History Association Book of the Year Award in 2022.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1916; that was the day when what came to be known as the Everett Massacre took place in Washington State.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @ReutherLibrary @iww
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Nov 5, 2023
How matchgirls sparked the British labour movement
LHT’s Chris Garlock tours the East London site of the 1888 Matchgirls Strike with Union Dues podcast host Simon Sapper. On this week’s Labor History in 2:00: Birth of populist Will Rogers.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @DuesUnion
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Oct 29, 2023
Who “Oppenheimer” left out
The summer blockbuster “Oppenheimer” generated a lot of interest in the history of how nuclear weapons were developed in the United States, but the film leaves out an important part of this history: the sacrifice made by tens of thousands of workers in the production of our country’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Excerpted from the Heartland Labor Forum radio show. To learn more about eligibility for benefits from the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act or to start a claim, click here or call toll-free 866-888-3322. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The 1948 Donora Smog.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @Heartland_Labor
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Oct 22, 2023
The Triangle Fire: A new memorial, and ”Scenes from a Prosecution”
A talk with the writer, producer and director of Triangle: Scenes from a Prosecution, a new one-act dramatization of the criminal trial of the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory following the 1911 fire that took 146 lives in New York City. Plus, music and poetry by Bev Grant and Joe Glazer. The new Triangle Fire Memorial was unveiled and dedicated on October 11. On this week’s Labor History in Two: the year was 1983. That was the day that musician Merle Travis died.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory #Theatre68NY #TriangleFirePlay #TriangleFireMemorial #TriangleShirtwaistFactoryFire #JesseWaldinger
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Oct 15, 2023
Weapons of the Boss
In 1953 the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) established a set of ten guiding principles at its’ tenth biennial convention in San Francisco. This manifesto represents a fascinating historical document, a snapshot in time but also a roadmap, a statement of aspiration calling upon union members to look beyond internal conflicts derived from factionalism, prejudice, even tradition. On today’s show, drawn from The Docker Podcast, Zack Pattin (ILWU Local 23) and Myka Dubay (ILWU Local 5 and ILWU International Executive Board) discuss their workshop at this year’s Young Workers Conference, “Weapons of the Boss: Racism and Anti-Trans Discrimination” and Zack walks us through the origins and context of the ILWU’s Ten Guiding Principles.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: Labor’s Magna Carta.
Music: The Workers Song Community Project | The Longest Johns
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @dockerpodcast
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Oct 8, 2023
Voices of Guinness (Encore)
In 2005 the Guinness Brewery at Park Royal, West London closed after seven decades of production. Tim Strangleman spent the last six months of the Brewery’s life working with a photographer to record in words and picture the site before it closed. Subsequent research revealed an incredibly rich story of corporate cultural change and the transformation of work and the workplace. Drawing on material from his 2019 book, Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery, Strangleman, Professor of Sociology, in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Canterbury, reflects on what that story tells us about work meaning, identity and organizational life in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Our show is excerpted from Strangleman’s Zoom presentation at the October 5 edition of Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives, the lecture series sponsored by the Michigan Traditional Arts Program and the Labor Education Program at Michigan State University. To get on the ODW/ODL email list email John Beck at mailto:beckj@msu.edu Click here for photos of the Park Royal Guinness Brewery. And, on Labor History in 2:00, the year was 1940; that was the day that the federally mandated 40-hour work week went into effect for U.S. workers. Produced by Chris Garlock. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. Original airdate October 24, 2021.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @MichiganTradArts @MSUSHRLR @DIndustrialKent @SSPSSR @OxUniPress
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Oct 1, 2023
“The Port of Missing Men” (Encore)
This week, labor history takes a deep dive into "True Crime" territory. Billy Gohl was called "The Ghoul of Grays Harbor" in the early 20th Century when he was accused of being the murderer who dumped several bodies into the canals around Aberdeen in Washington State. Was he one of America's first serial killers? Or was he just another in a long line of labor activists framed by the bosses? Find out when Working to Live in Southwest Washington podcast hosts Shannon and Harold talk with Aaron Goings, author of “The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor & Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest”. On Labor History in 2:00: the year was 1918. That was the day machinist John Connolly was fired from General Electric’s sprawling River Works in West Lynn, Massachusetts.
Originally aired 7/10/2022. Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @SWWACLC @Red_Harbor
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Sep 24, 2023
The labor “Parade” that flopped (Encore)
Two years before the pro-labor musical revue “Pins & Needles” became a big Broadway hit in 1937, “Parade”, another musical featuring pro-labor songs flopped after just 40 performances and the Theatre Guild -- which did so well with “Pins & Needles” just a few years later -- lost $100,000 dollars. In today’s edition of Labor History Today, we bring you the fascinating prelude to the success of “Pins & Needles”, starting with workers social clubs in Europe and in the United States, and the Worker’s Theatre Movement. Michigan State University College of Music Professor Maria Cristina Fava’s talk, originally given in October 2012, was part of the "Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives" Brown Bag series sponsored by the Michigan State University School of Human Resources and Labor Relations and the MSU Museum. The series is organized by MSU professor John Beck. For Fava’s in-depth discussion of “Pins & Needles”, check out this edition of Labor History Today.
This week’s show originally aired on Nov. 30, 2022. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory @wrkclasshistory
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Sep 15, 2023
The Irish Immigrant Miners’ Memorial (Encore)
Irish immigrants, who toiled in the silver mines of Leadville, Colorado, in the late 1800s are largely forgotten. Many died penniless, buried in paupers’ graves. But now a Colorado professor has dug up their stories and their struggles. The Heartland Labor Forum brings us a report on the Irish Immigrant Miners’ Memorial.*** Then, Remember our Struggle with Ariana Blockmon, who covers the 1916 Springfield (MO) Streetcar Strike. ***UPDATE: On Sept. 16th, 2023, at 10:00 am, the Leadville Irish Memorial will be unveiled in Leadville's Evergreen Cemetery. Details here.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: Rufino Contreras (1979).
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILL…
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Sep 10, 2023
Colorado’s lost strike song
The story of how a popular labor song was lost, and then found. From The Labor Exchange, Colorado's only labor focused radio show, airing on KGNU Community Radio, Mondays at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. Questions, comments, and suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory
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Sep 3, 2023
Brecher’s “Strike!”
Part 1 of our 2018 interview with Jeremy Brecher, the historian, documentary filmmaker, activist, and author of books on labor and social movements, including the classic book Strike! Plus: Patrick Dixon talks with history professor Sarah Rose about the Americans with Disabilities Act and the complex history of disability and work. Jordan Biscardo, communications director at the Seafarers Union, tells us about the 1946 general strike that shut down the U.S. maritime industry. And our labor history Object of the Week is the cover of the September 1949 edition of The American Federationist, depicting the first Labor Day march. Originally posted 9/3/2018. Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foudnation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Engineered by Chris Garlock. Labor history sources include Today…
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Aug 27, 2023
“The waterfront is my life”
The story of Cleophas Williams, the first African American president of Local 10 of the ILWU, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Thanks to WBAI’s Building Bridges radio show, where a longer version of this originally appeared. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Packers.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @bbridgesradio @ilwulongshore
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Aug 20, 2023
Debs’ radio station
Filmmaker Yale Strom ("American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs") remembers WEVD, the Chicago radio station named for labor leader Eugene Victor Debs; Dan Duncan celebrates the founding of the AFL-CIO’s Maritime Trades Department; Saul Schniderman marks the anniversary of the publication of the IWW’s "Little Red Song Book," and Ben Blake’s labor history Object of the Week. This show was originally released August 12, 2018. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory
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Aug 13, 2023
The union archive that almost didn’t make it
The story of how the International Woodworkers of America Archive began, was almost lost, and continues to preserve the records of what was once British Columbia's largest and most powerful union. Today’s report comes from On the Line: Stories of BC Workers. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Singing a union tune.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @BC_LHC
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Aug 6, 2023
Coit Tower’s New Deal Murals
From 1935 to 1943 the Federal Art Project -- a project of the Works Progress Administration, or WPA-- employed some 10,000 artists and craft workers, helping them survive the Great Depression. The artists created hundreds of thousands of visual arts: paintings, murals, prints, posters, and renderings. Many of them survive to this day, but you have to know where to look for them. That’s why LHT host Chris Garlock found himself on Telegraph Hill yesterday, during a visit to San Francisco, meeting up with Harvey Smith, who leads tours of local WPA sites. Find out more at LivingNewDeal.org Coit Tower is home to a stunning collection of murals that have recently been restored; Chris had seen them many years ago and had been struck by the depictions of workers and bosses that managed to be simultaneously beautiful and politically powerful and arranged to meet up with Harvey so he could shed some light on their creation and meaning.
Harvey does a terrific job describing the art, but we’v…
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Jul 30, 2023
Who Killed Frank Little?
The Death In The West podcast re-opens the case of Frank Little, a union organizer whose brutal unsolved murder shocked the nation during the tumultuous summer of 1917. Features Frank Little, a brand-new song from the R.J. Phillips Band. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1970. That was the day the United Farm Workers, led by Cesar Chavez, signed their first union contract in California.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory
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Jul 23, 2023
Life and Times of a Black Wobbly
Ben Fletcher was one of the most important black labor leaders in American history. Yet he’s almost entirely unknown. In today’s show, from the Working Class History podcast, we learn about this little-known dock worker and labor organizer, who helped organize thousands of workers on the Philadelphia docks into the most powerful multiracial union in the country. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @ProfPeterCole
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Jul 16, 2023
The Port Chicago Mutiny (Encore)
On July 17, 1944, two ammunition ships exploded at Port Chicago, Calif., killing 322, including 202 African-Americans assigned by the Navy to handle explosives. It was the worst home-front disaster of World War II. The resulting refusal of 258 African-Americans to return to the dangerous work underpinned the trial and conviction of 50 of the men in what is called the Port Chicago Mutiny. Today, the disaster and its aftermath are memorialized at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, one of a small number of National Park sites that commemorate death and dying on the job. In October 2021, as part of "Monumental Labor," a three-part online series that explored the memory of work and working peoples in National Parks and National Historic Landmarks, a distinguished panel discussed “Tragedy and Resistance at Port Chicago Naval Magazine.” The "Monumental Labor" series was organized by Labor History Today contributor Dr. Eleanor Mahoney and Dr. Emma Silverman. Thanks also to…
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Jul 9, 2023
The Disney Revolt
Among those turning out to support the strike by Hollywood writers -- now in its 10th week-- have been members of the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839); back in March, the animators staged a “solidarity walk” around Walt Disney Studios in Burbank with dozens of the studio’s animation production workers protesting Disney’s refusal to voluntarily recognize its unionization efforts. Those who know their Hollywood labor history will have recognized the echoes of another Hollywood strike, the 1941 walkout by hundreds of animators at Walt Disney Studios. On today’s show, animation historian Jake Friedman joins us to discuss his book The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation’s Golden Age. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Squeegee Strike.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz In…
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Jul 2, 2023
Under The Iron Heel
University of Colorado law professor Ahmed White discusses his new book on the Industrial Workers of the World, “Under The Iron Heel – The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers.” Today’s show is the first of a 3-part interview with White on Labor Exchange, Colorado's only labor-focused radio show, airing Mondays at 6:00 PM Mountain Time on KGNU Community Radio in Boulder, Colorado. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1998. If you were trying to drive to work on that Tuesday morning in mid-town Manhattan you were probably late. Forty thousand construction workers took to the streets in a massive protest.
Questions, comments, or suggestions welcome; to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA…
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Jun 25, 2023
MoJo’s March of the Mill Children; Remembering Harry Belafonte
They had banners demanding "We want to go to school and not the mines!" and held rallies each night in a new town. This was the famous "March of the Mill Children" in June, 1903, led by Mother Jones, from Kensington, Philadelphia, to President Theodore Roosevelt’s Summer White House in Oyster Bay, New York. The Labor Jawn podcast reports.
Harry Belafonte was not only an acclaimed actor and singer but an important fighter against racism and militarism. Work Week Radio’s Steve Zeltzer talks with Clarence Thomas, retired Secretary Treasurer of Local 10 of the ILWU, which had a longstanding connection to1 Belafonte. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1971; at 12:51 am Battalion 12 Chief Leo Najarian of Los Angeles heard that there had been a tunnel explosion.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the…
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Jun 18, 2023
The 1943 RJ Reynolds Strike
Ten thousand workers cross the color line to shut down the largest tobacco manufacturing plant in the South and win a union. From the “NC Labor History Revealed” podcast, with music from the Love Songs from the Liberation Wars labor jazz opera. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1903. Mary Harris -- better known as “Mother” Jones -- held a rally in Philadelphia, The March of the Mill Children.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory
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Jun 11, 2023
Don’t Iron While the Strike is Hot!
A chat with Owen Smith, who’s directing “Don’t Iron While the Strike is Hot!”Saturday, June 17 at the Cohoes Music Hall in Cohoes, New York; the musical tells the story of the 1864 Troy Collar Laundry Union Strike. The Kate Mullany National Historic Site opened on June 10; Mullany organized the Troy Collar Laundry Union, the nation's first all-female union. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The day Consumers Power Company employees near Flint, Michigan shut off generators and turbines at the Zilwaukee power plant.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @cohoestheatre @NYSAFLCIO
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Jun 8, 2023
Democracy Under Siege
Pod Extra: Bill Fletcher Jr. on Resisting Tyranny Through a 21st Century Labor Movement at the 12th annual conference of the Labor Research and Action Network. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @Labor_Research #LRAN2023 @JosephMcCartin @BillFletcherJr
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Jun 6, 2023
A white-collar strike
The Worker’s Mic talks with Writers Guild supporters at a Chicago rally. Today’s labor quote: The Labor Party. Today’s labor history: Autoworkers stage general strike in Lansing. @wpfwdc #1u #unions #LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @WGAWest #WGAstrike #WGAStrong #WGA @UFWupdates @coalition_labor
Proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.
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Jun 4, 2023
Detroit’s Walk to Freedom
Labor journalist David Elsila remembers the 1963 March for Freedom in Detroit, Michigan, "the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation's history" up to that date, featuring Martin Luther King’s first draft of his “I Have a Dream” speech, written at Solidarity House, the United Auto Workers headquarters in Detroit. NOTE: The Michigan Labor History Society will host a commemoration of the March on Wednesday, June 7 at the UAW Local 22 Union Hall, 4300 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, MI. On this week’s Labor History in Two: International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union founded.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHi…
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May 28, 2023
Trumka on the power of labor arts
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka spoke passionately about the key role of labor arts in the labor movement at the Great Labor Arts Exchange in 2009; he died in 2021 but we’ll hear his voice again on today’s show (the 40th gathering of GLAE will take place June 15 through 18 at the Maritime Conference Center and Hotel, in Linthicum Heights, Maryland). On this week’s Labor History in Two: 50,000 striking rubber workers end their 5-day walkout in Akron, Ohio. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory
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May 21, 2023
The Memorial Day Massacre
Greg Mitchell and Lyn Goldfarb discuss their new film Memorial Day Massacre: Workers Die, Film Buried, which explores a largely forgotten episode in labor--and media—history. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1937. That was the day that workers at the Jones and Laughlin plant in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania voted in the first ever union election in the United States’ steel industry under the National Labor Relations Board.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @GregMitch
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May 14, 2023
Mackay, Wurf, library workers, Matewan and the first baseball strike (Encore)
On this week's show (originally posted 5/13/2018): Labor historian Joe McCartin discusses the 1938 U.S. Supreme Court’s Mackay decision, which permits the permanent replacement of striking workers; Joe says this obscure decision was in fact a “ticking time bomb” that would go off to devastating effect more than 40 years later, when Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981, giving employers across the country a green light for union-busting. PLUS: Joe Hower on how Jerry Wurf built AFSCME into one of the most powerful unions in America, Lane Windham on the first union of public library workers, and Saul Schniderman and David Fernandez on the Matewan Massacre. Chris Bangert-Drowns even manages to sneak in baseball’s first labor strike, when the 1912 Detroit Tigers refused to play after team leader Ty Cobb was suspended.
Plus music from Brooklyn Cablevision workers – and CWA members -- Jaywalk, Grim and Shatoya Thomas-Flemmings, and the immortal Hazel Dickens…
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May 7, 2023
Labor Journalism, Farmworkers, and Reynolds Tobacco
Journalist Victoria Bouloubasis discusses her career reporting on agricultural and food labor in North Carolina, her approach to labor journalism, and how she uses histories in her work. From the Working History podcast, produced by the Southern Labor Studies Association. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Putting America Back to Work.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Apr 30, 2023
Working Class Giant
First published in 1981, Working Class Giant: The Life of William Z. Foster is the classic biography of the radical American labor organizer and Communist politician. A new edition includes a foreword by today’s guest, union activist and organizer Chris Townsend, who talks about how Foster’s life and legacy continues to inspire a new generation of workers. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Coxey’s Army Marches on the Nation’s Capitol (1894), and the day that updated National Labor Relations Board rules regarding the formation of new unions went into effect (2012).
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @w…
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Apr 23, 2023
Ludlow: My name is Louis Tikas (Encore)
(Originally released on April 18, 2021)
Brockman Sewell’s original dramatic performance based on the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado, which occurred 119 years ago on April 20, 1914.
Labor History Today contributor Saul Schniderman with his tribute to labor and protest singer Anne Feeney.
On today’s Labor History in 2: We Have Fed You All A Thousand Years
To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Chris Garlock and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We're a proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, more than 100 shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns.
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Edited/produced by Chris Garlock and Patrick Dixon; social media guru: Harold Phillips
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Apr 16, 2023
Bitter Kisses for Labor
Dr. Carol Quirke, Professor of History at SUNY-Old Westbury, on "Bitter Kisses for Labor: Mass Consumer Capitalism and the Hershey Chocolate Sit-down Strike, 1937," part of the "Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives" Brown Bag series sponsored by the MSU School of Human Resources and Labor Relations. Quirke tracks the use of photography to present unions and strikes as violent and un-American, and describes how Hershey management fought off the attempt at unionization. PLUS: More Perfect Union’s "Hershey Prison" 2022 report on brutal working conditions at a Hershey factory. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Another Day in the Class War.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Apr 9, 2023
Tom Breiding’s songs of struggle
Labor history in song, from the “Coal Miners’ Balladeer,” performed live at the April 1, 2023 “Annual Commemoration of the History of Working People” put on by the Pennsylvania Labor History Society and The Battle of Homestead Foundation in Windber, Pennsylvania. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1937. That was the day sparring between Henry Ford and John L. Lewis spilled over into the press.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Apr 2, 2023
The 1922-23 Windber Coal Strike
Yesterday I drove a few hours west through howling wind and driving rain to the little town of Windber, Pennsylvania; a couple miles from Johnstown. The Pennsylvania Labor History Society and The Battle of Homestead Foundation were holding their “Annual Commemoration of the History of Working People” and despite the rough weather the basement hall at the Slovak Educational Club soon filled up with folks eager to hear a daylong program that included commemorating the United Mine Workers 1922-23 Windber strike for union recognition, discussions on “Women in Coal and Steel” and “John Brophy and Labor Education”. As folks sipped their hot coffee and munched on donuts, “Coal Miners’ Balladeer” Tom Breiding regaled them with labor songs. - Chris Garlock NOTE: the last speaker talking about her student days of organizing and diapering her children on the university president’s desk was not Bonnie Boyer but Amy Niehouse. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1…
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Mar 26, 2023
Erasing Virginia’s labor history
History standards in Virginia are updated every seven years. The new proposed standards put forth by Governor Glenn Youngkin and his Virginia Department of Education would remove the American labor movement; the state’s labor movement is fighting back, and last week on the Your Rights At Work radio show, we talked with the Virginia Education Association’s Shane Riddle and Brian Peyton from Teamsters 322.
In our second segment, Labor History Today producers Mel Smith and Patrick Dixon get a hands-on feel for labor history when they visit the George Meany Memorial Archives at the University of Maryland College Park, where Ben Blake and Alan Wierdak showed off a collection of construction hardhats and talk about how such physical artifacts provide an entry point -- as well as a key to understanding -- labor history.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: Gompers embraces anti-immigrant legislation. Be sure to stick around at the end of the show for a special bonus; a song by the R.…
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Mar 19, 2023
The Strange Career of “the Working Class”
Originally broadcast March 17, 2019 On this week’s show: Robyn Leigh Muncy, whose article “The Strange Career of ‘the Working Class’ in US Political Culture Since the 1950s” was published in the December issue of "Labor: Studies in Working Class History." Professor Muncy is Director of the Honors Program in the Department of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. Plus, in this week’s “Cool things from the George Meany Labor Archives,” Alan, Chloe and Ben discover something unexpected in their “Miscellaneous” folder for the 1912 Lawrence textile strike. Interviews by Chris Garlock, Patrick Dixon and Allan Wierdak.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #Labor…
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Mar 12, 2023
Fred Redmond: “Why Labor History Is Important”
The AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer – and former steel worker – tells the Battle of Homestead Foundation “We have to tell the truth about labor history, the good, and the bad, and the ugly.” Plus: Pete Seeger sings The Homestead Strike Song. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1912. The Lawrence textile workers strike had worn on for over a month. More than 20,000 workers had walked off the job…
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Mar 5, 2023
The Tractor Princess
Today’s show celebrates Women’s History Month and comes to us from Re:Work, the podcast from the UCLA Labor Center that for the last decade has elevated stories of work to humanize and break down economic and racial justice issues. It's produced by Veena Hampapur and Saba Waheed. Their latest episode is “The Tractor Princess” and it draws on excerpts from an oral history interview with Antoinette Yvonne DeOcampo-Lechtenberg, which is a part of a community archive and research initiative called Watsonville is in the Heart, which highlights the stories of Filipino families from the greater Pajaro Valley region in California. On this week’s Labor History in Two: This was the day President Franklin Roosevelt named Frances Perkins Secretary of Labor.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiativ…
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Feb 26, 2023
Buffalo Soldier turned revolutionary
Two more stories for Black History Month: From former auto worker Jonathan Melrod, the fascinating story of David Fagen, who joined the U.S. Army to escape Jim Crow discrimination, and was sent to the Philippines, where not only did he and his fellow Black soldiers suffer from endemic racism in the military, but found that they were fighting on the wrong side of the U.S. war of Philippine conquest.
Then, Labor History Today correspondent Alan Wierdak talks with Caleb Smith, a PhD student at Tulane about an important Title 7 discrimination lawsuit involving Harris Parson, a Black Korean War vet who went to work at Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical in Bogalusa, Louisiana. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Remembering E.D. Nixon.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome; to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor…
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Feb 19, 2023
Celebrating Black History Month (Encore)
(Originally aired February 17, 2019) On this week’s show: William P. Jones on “The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History Of Civil Rights,” plus a 1961 memo to George Meany about the Freedom Rides, and a confidential “report on union racial progress.” Interviews by Chris Garlock and Alan Wierdak.
Sweet Honey In The Rock - Eye On The Prize "CORE: Freedom Ride," 1961 Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Produced & engineered by Chris Garlock and Patrick Dixon.
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Feb 12, 2023
Domestic worker, Mother of the Movement
She started as a young domestic worker in apartheid South Africa, became General Secretary of the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union and was the first president of the International Domestic Workers Federation; Myrtle Witbooi – who died on January 16 – in her own voice and remembered by the Solidarity Center’s Alexis De Simone. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Most Dangerous Woman in America.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Feb 5, 2023
Reconciling a Slaveholding Past (Encore)
(Originally aired October 13, 2019) Jody Allen, Assistant Professor of History at the College of William and Mary and Director of The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation. Jody discusses William and Mary's slaveholding past and the genesis, research, and ongoing community outreach of The Lemon Project with Working History podcast host Beth English. Plus: SEIU 32BJ’s Maria Naranjo on the origins of "chingchinas" -- soda can noisemakers -- during the Justice for Janitors campaigns of the mid-Eighties.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory
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Jan 29, 2023
A meatpacker’s American dream
On the America Works podcast, West African immigrant Komla Ewu tells oral historian John McKerley about how he left a prestigious but unprofitable teaching career in his native Togo to pursue the American dream. On this week’s Labor History in Two: President Jackson sets a union-busting precedent & Anna LoPizzo is murdered by police during the Bread and Roses strike.
Send your labor history questions, comments, or suggestions to us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Jan 22, 2023
Bill Lucy on MLK; Shubert Sebree on Debs
Today’s show covers a lot of ground, from legendary labor leader Bill Lucy’s memories of Dr. King and the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike to Shubert Sebree’s memories of Gene Debs, founder of the powerful American Railway Union and three-time Socialist candidate for President of the United States. Bill Lucy has some inspiring advice for those who are carrying on Dr. King’s fight for justice, especially younger activists, and Shubert Sebree reveals a gentler side to Debs, as fierce a labor leader as we’ve ever known. On this week’s Labor History in Two: the founding of the United Mine Workers, Knights of Labor founder Terrance Powderly, and the 1959 Knox Coal flood disaster. Music: The Ballad of Eugene Victor Debs; Joe Glazer.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the…
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Jan 15, 2023
Strong Winds and Widow Makers
Often cast as villains in the Northwest's environmental battles, timber workers have a connection to the forest that goes far beyond jobs and economic issues, argues Steven C. Beda his new book Strong Winds and Widow Makers: Workers, Nature and Environmental Conflict in Pacific Northwest Timber Country. In a discussion with the Labor Radio Podcast Network this week, Beda talked about how life experiences like hunting, fishing, foraging, and hiking imbued timber country with meanings and values that nurtured a deep sense of place in workers, their families, and their communities. This sense of place in turn shaped ideas about protection that sometimes clashed with the views of environmentalists--or the desires of employers. Music: Strong Winds and Widow Makers - Buzz Martin Bread and Roses – The R.J. Phillips Band (includes video commemorating the Bread and Roses Strike, which began on January 11, 1912) Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome; to find out how you can be a part…
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Jan 8, 2023
The Cambridge Movement
Professor of African American History and Culture Bernard Demczuk on how Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, was known as “Maryland’s Mississippi” because of pervasive racial oppression and discrimination, about the civil rights and labor organizing that began in Cambridge, Maryland, and how that town became the site of the longest period of martial law within the United States since 1877, and how that that history carries on today in movements like Black Lives Matter. Music: Cambridge Town, by the R.J. Phillips Band. Read more about Gloria Richardson here.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: One of the largest slave revolts in American history.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Jan 1, 2023
“No Labor Dictators for Us”
The success of the Flint Sit-Down Strike that began on December 30, 1936 was far from assured at the time; GM management fought the union bitterly, and then, as now, there were workers who didn’t support the union. In “’No Labor Dictators for Us’: Anti-Union Workers During the Flint Sit-Down Strikes” -- a forthcoming article in the Michigan Historical Review -- Dr. Gregory Wood takes a closer look at the influence of anti-union workers and the General Motors-supported Flint Alliance both during and after the strike. He discussed his research on Tales from the Reuther Library, the excellent labor history podcast from the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The misunderstood Emancipation Proclamation, and Transit Workers Push Back.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union…
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Dec 25, 2022
A Working-Class Christmas Story Christmas
I don't love economic exploitation, but I do love Christmas and Christmas movies. They work to sell me stuff and ideology, but they also critique commercialism and exploitation. See what subversive messages you can find in a holiday classic; I triple dog dare you. Kathy M. Newman joins Labor Goes to the Movies hosts Elise Bryant and Chris Garlock to explore A Working-Class Christmas Story Christmas, from the Working-Class Perspectives blog. Kathy’s an associate professor of literary and cultural studies at Carnegie Mellon University, where she writes about radio, television, and contemporary media. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Debs Released; Real Gift Was His Message.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Dec 18, 2022
Red Jerseys in Detroit
Argentina plays France today in the 2022 World Cup final. The U.S. team bowed out on December 3 when they went down 3-1 to the Netherlands. But soccer, it turns out, has a long history in the United States, thanks to its popularity among immigrant workers from European countries. From 1927 to 1935, the United States Communist Party (CPUSA) established the Labor Sport Union, a coalition of worker athletic clubs, primarily located in the urban Northeast and Midwest. The CPUSA’s 1925 sport manifesto emphasized that sports should be used as a medium for class struggle and even to create “proletarian fighting units against militarism and fascism.” One of their successful sporting accomplishments was the Workers’ Soccer Association, or WSA, which organized leagues in New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. This communist soccer league played two seasons per year and competed for city, regional, and national championships. On today’s show, history p…
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Dec 11, 2022
Julia Reichert: “Documentarian of the Working Class”
Julia Reichert, dubbed “Documentarian of the Working Class” by The New York Times, died of cancer on December 1. 9 to 5 co-founder Karen Nussbaum interviewed Julia in 2020 after her film American Factory won an Oscar; Part 1 ran in our April 26, 2020 episode. This week, we’re re-running Part 2. Reichert made documentary films for 50 years and was known as “a godmother of the American independent film movement.” Karen and Julia start out talking about the classic labor film Union Maids and the strong connection of that film – made nearly fifty years ago – to Reichert’s most recent film, 9to5: The Story of a Movement, co-directed with Steven Bognar, who also co-directed American Factory. The interview ends with the wonderful back story of Julia’s call at the 2020 Academy Awards for workers of the world to unite. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Founding of the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to fi…
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Dec 4, 2022
“Capital’s Terrorists”
Professor and labor historian Chad Pearson traces “the continuity of thuggery” by bosses in his new book “Capital's Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century”. Pearson recently talked with fellow Texan Gene Lantz on Workers Beat, a weekly radio show on KNON Radio in Dallas, Texas. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Organizing to end slavery.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @KNON893FM
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Nov 30, 2022
The labor “Parade” that flopped
Two years before the pro-labor musical revue “Pins & Needles” became a big Broadway hit in 1937, “Parade”, another musical featuring pro-labor songs, flopped after just 40 performances and the Theatre Guild -- which did so well with “Pins & Needles” just a few years later -- lost $100,000 dollars. In today’s brief bonus edition of Labor History Today, we bring you the fascinating prelude to the success of “Pins & Needles”, starting with workers social clubs in Europe and in the United States, and the Worker’s Theatre Movement. Michigan State University College of Music Professor Maria Cristina Fava’s talk, originally given in October 2012, was part of the "Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives" Brown Bag series sponsored by the Michigan State University School of Human Resources and Labor Relations and the MSU Museum. The series is organized by MSU professor John Beck. For Fava’s in-depth discussion of “Pins & Needles”, check out last Sunday’s edition of Labor Hi…
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Nov 27, 2022
Pins & Needles’ mass appeal
Eighty five years ago today, the pro-labor musical revue “Pins & Needles” opened on Broadway with a cast of members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. “Pins & Needles” became a big hit, with over a thousand performances. It was performed at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, and was revived on Broadway in 1978 and in London in 2010. On today’s show, Michigan State University College of Music Professor Maria Cristina Fava explains the relationship of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Theatre Guild in the production of "Pins and Needles". Fava describes how the production evolved from a variety show with a cast of unionized garment workers in their off time to the cast giving up their jobs to become full time actors with the success of the show. She provides reviews by theater critics and describes how the cast navigated the politics of the day. Fava’s talk. originally given in October 2012, was part…
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Nov 20, 2022
Finnish North American working class women and music in the early 20th century
Music historian Saijaleena Rantanen discusses songs by and about Finnish immigrant working-class women alongside musical samples from working-class women of Finnish background in early 20th century North America. The presentation was part of the 2022 FinnFest USA, and the FinnFest music series is co-hosted by the Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest project at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Thanks also to John Beck and the Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives lunchtime series at Michigan State University. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Scab.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkcl…
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Nov 13, 2022
For Gene Debs
November 5 was the 167th anniversary of the birth of Eugene Victor Debs - labor leader, socialist, three-time candidate for president and the first president of the American Railway Union, which staged some of the biggest strikes in American labor history. Today Bernie Sanders and the late great Anne Feeney are among those who celebrate Debs’ life and work. They come to us courtesy of a terrific show, The Radical Songbook Podcast. It’s hosted by Michael Funke, who’s got 15 years of radio experience and 35 years’ experience as an editor for alternative and union publications. Michael’s a former union steward and a former organizer for Jobs with Justice. His love of music dates back to when he heard Fats Domino on a nickel jukebox in 1955. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Lab…
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Nov 6, 2022
Who belongs in the labor movement?
Resilient worker coalitions are often found at the intersection of labor and race. On today’s show, from the NC Labor History Revealed podcast, we’ll hear about how North Carolinians formed multi-racial coalitions to fight racism inside and outside the workplace, and how farmworkers leveraged such coalitions to overcome racist inadequacies in federal labor law to secure the largest union contract in North Carolina history. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Fight for Equality and Honest Abe’s Stand for Labor.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Music: Tobacco Blues - Bluesland with The Cold Sweat Horns
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Oct 30, 2022
Pride on the line
Today’s show is excerpted from an online talk last month: “Pride on the Line: The UAW and Queer-Labor Solidarity after Stonewall” by Jamie McQuaid, part of the Our Daily Work Our Daily Lives Brown Bag series from Michigan State University. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Wall Street Lays an Egg.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory
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Oct 23, 2022
The longest nurses’ strike
On March 8, 2021, protesting dangerous working conditions and staffing ratios, over 700 nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Massachusetts hit the picket line for what would become the longest nurses’ strike in the state’s history. This is their story. Today’s show is excerpted from an hourlong video by Gino Canella for TRNN, The Real News Network. These interviews with St. Vincent nurses comprise a ripped-from-the-headlines oral history of a ferocious labor battle that carries lessons for workers everywhere. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The cause and effect of unskilled temps.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #L…
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Oct 16, 2022
Labor History Today: No Equal Justice
The legal and civil rights legacy of George W. Crockett Jr., from the Tales from the Reuther Library podcast. Peter Hammer describes the life and legacy of Crockett, a Black lawyer who fought racism and defended constitutional rights in landmark cases from the 1940s through the 1960s. Hammer is an A. Alfred Taubman Endowed Chair in the Wayne State University Law School and director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. Labor History Today is produced by the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Today’s show edited by Patrick Dixon and engineered by Chris Garlock.
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Oct 9, 2022
Sharecroppers’ struggles for rights and power
Patrick Dixon talks with James Benton about the emergence of sharecropping as a compromise between former slaves – freedmen – and landowners, and sharecroppers subsequent struggles for rights and power. Benton is the Director of the Race and Economic Empowerment Project at the The Kalmanovitz Initiative at Georgetown University. For our Labor History Object of the week, Ben Blake at the Meany Labor Archives pulls out a collection of buttons from the Solidarnosc union movement in Poland.
NOTE: This podcast originally aired on October 7, 2018. Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Engineered by Chris Garlock.
Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, by David Prosten.
This week's music: Sharecropper's Blues, featuring Charlie Barnet with Kay Starr o…
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Oct 2, 2022
Socialist fairy tales
From the Working Class History podcast, acclaimed author, poet and Professor of Children’s Literature Michael Rosen talks about his anthology, Workers’ Tales: Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain, which gathers together short stories from the labor and socialist press between 1880 and 1920. The Working Class History podcast is put out by an international collective of worker-activists whose social media and podcast project uncovers our collective history of fighting for a better world and promotes it to educate and inspire a new generation of activists. On this week’s Labor History in Two: A shot of opportunity; the IWW organizes Starbucks.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Sep 25, 2022
Pueblo steelworkers’ historic strike
“Steel City: 1980-2004” is a new exhibit at the El Pueblo History Museum covering the historic steel strike in Pueblo, Colorado. From the Labor Exchange, a podcast put out by the Colorado AFL-CIO, host Robert Lindgren talks to History Colorado’s Zach Werkowitch about the exhibit, which chronicles a defining period in Pueblo’s history as steelworkers and their families fought for labor rights and held their community together during often desperate times. On this week’s Labor History in Two: A Large Pepperoni Pizza and a Union.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @AflBobby @ElPuebloMuseum…
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Sep 18, 2022
It’s not working on the railroad
Labor historian Erik Loomis (A History of America in Ten Strikes) talks with The Rick Smith Show about how the issues that brought rail workers to the brink of a major strike this week trace back to a long history of abuse by railroad bosses, and a tradition of militance by the men and women who work on the nation’s railroads. Plus, historical perspective on the tentative rail agreement from The American Prospect Editor At Large Harold Meyerson.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: the 1934 textile strike and the 1947 Harvester strike.
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Editing this week by Patrick Dixon.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclas…
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Sep 11, 2022
A miasma of metals
On November 1, 1948, smog produced by the southwestern Pennsylvanian steel industry poisoned the air in the Monongahela Valley town of Donora, killing more than 22 people and sickening thousands more. On today’s show, Louise Milone a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Georgia Department of History explores the response of the US Steel Corporation, employees, and Donora residents; and she explains how the United Steelworkers of America pushed for an investigation and improved environmental and health and safety regulations following the disaster. The story comes to us from Tales from the Reuther Library, a podcast focusing on stories on labor history, Detroit, and Wayne State University.
Also on today’s show, from Labor History in 2:00: The Lattimer Massacre; Chicago Teachers Say, Enough! Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union…
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Sep 4, 2022
NC Labor History Revealed!
North Carolina’s low union density today belies its rich history of worker organizing since the birth of the American labor movement in the 1800s, but this new podcast by North Carolina’s labor union federation aims to bring that history to light.
Also on today’s show, from Labor History in 2:00: Reconstruction Crumbles In Mississippi, and The Peekskill Riots. Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @NCStateAFLCIO #UnionStrong #1u #UnionsForAll
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Aug 28, 2022
Mother Jones and Fannie Sellins
A month before the August 1919 steel strike in Homestead, Pennsylvania, Mother Jones was arrested for addressing a large crowd on Eighth Avenue. And on August 26, 1919, Mine Workers organizer Fannie Sellins and miner Joseph Starzeleski were murdered by coal company guards on a picket line in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania. You’ll hear their stories today from Charlie's Monday Marker, hosted by Dr. Charles McCollester and produced by the Battle of Homestead Foundation. Charlie’s Monday Marker delves into the fascinating stories behind the more than 60 historical markers listed in "Labor History Sites in the Pittsburgh Region", a book authored by Dr. McCollester and Howard Scott in 2016 and published by Allegheny County Labor Council.
Also on today’s show, from Labor History in 2:00: The 1934 Filipino Lettuce Workers Strike, and The Man You’ve Probably Never Heard Of, But Should Have. Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor Hi…
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Aug 21, 2022
Scabby The Rat; Smoking at Work; Which Side Are You On? (Encore)
Today’s episode originally ran on August 4, 2019. Labor lawyer Matt Fusco on Scabby, the giant inflatable union protest rat, which faced extermination at the hands of the Trump labor board. Gregory Wood, author of “Clearing the Air: The Rise and Fall of Smoking in the Workplace,” and a special LHT remix of the labor classic “Which Side Are You On?” Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Produced & engineered by Chris Garlock and Patrick Dixon.
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Aug 14, 2022
IWW’s Little Red Songbook (Encore)
Today's episode originally ran on August 12, 2018. This week's labor history: Yale Strom remembers WEVD, the Chicago radio station named for labor leader Eugene Victor Debs; Dan Duncan celebrates the founding of the AFL-CIO’s Maritime Trades Department; Saul Schniderman marks the anniversary of the publication of the IWW’s "Little Red Song Book," which is where all our music this week comes from; and Ben Blake’s labor history Object of the Week is a collection of posters, including one from the height of the Cold War showing an AFL-CIO map of forced labor gulags in the Soviet Union.
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Engineered by Chris Garlock.
Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services.
This week's music: Ho…
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Aug 7, 2022
The St. Vincent Hospital Strike
An oral history of a ferocious labor battle that became the longest nurses' strike in Massachusetts state history. It happened in 2021. Today’s show comes to us from The Real News Network; if you enjoy this report, please help TRNN continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following them and making a small donation. Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @TheRealNews
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Jul 31, 2022
The Washington Navy Shipyard Strike
The Washington Navy ship yard strike of 1835 begins, the 1913 Paterson Silk Strike ends, and in 1970, the United Farm Workers signed their first union contract in California. Thanks to The Heartland Labor Forum and Labor History in 2:00.
Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory
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Jul 24, 2022
A cold wind and a hot summer sit-down
Hundreds of Senate cafeteria workers and their supporters rallied – and 17 were arrested – this week in front of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, demanding justice and a contract. We remember the 78-day strike by government cafeteria workers in the frigid winter of 1948 that included battles on the picket line between the AFL and the CIO and between President Harry Truman and Congress. On Labor History in 2:00: The Great Railroad Strike reaches Louisville.
Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @unitehere23 @UHLocal25 @RepAndyLevin @unitehere @SenSanders
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Jul 17, 2022
Tragedy and Resistance at Port Chicago Naval Magazine (Encore)
Originally released February 27, 2022 On July 17, 1944, a group of sailors and civilians were loading ships with ammunition and bombs at Port Chicago, a naval magazine and barracks in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tragically, the ships blew up in a massive explosion that instantly killed 320 workers and injured hundreds more. Most of the dead were African Americans, since racial segregation consigned Black soldiers and sailors to manual labor and service, including the dangerous work of transporting munitions. When the surviving workers were ordered back on the job without any additional safety measures or training, 50 refused to return. The resisters, dubbed the “Port Chicago 50,” were found guilty of disobedience of a lawful order and mutiny and received lengthy sentences and dishonorable discharges. Today, the disaster and its aftermath are memorialized at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, one of a small number of National Park sites that commemorate death and dyi…
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Jul 10, 2022
“The Port of Missing Men”
This week, labor history takes a deep dive into "True Crime" territory. Billy Gohl was called "The Ghoul of Grays Harbor" in the early 20th Century when he was accused of being the murderer who dumped several bodies into the canals around Aberdeen in Washington State. Was he one of America's first serial killers? Or was he just another in a long line of labor activists framed by the bosses? Find out when Working to Live in Southwest Washington podcast hosts Shannon and Harold talk with Aaron Goings, author of “The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor & Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest”. Music for today's show: Hellbound Glory Streets of Aberdeen the ballad of Billy Gohl, by Leon Virgil Bowers. On Labor History in 2:00: the year was 1918. That was the day machinist John Connolly was fired from General Electric’s sprawling River Works in West Lynn, Massachusetts.
Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today,…
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Jul 3, 2022
A Supreme disaster for workers
On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the United States nearly 50 years ago. The decision sent shock waves across the country and through the American labor movement, which recognizes that reproductive rights are a worker issue, affecting millions of working women and their families. Labor historian Joe McCartin argues that “for most of its history, the court's just been a disaster for workers” and on today’s show, McCartin explores that history, warning that “We're not going to see a better Supreme Court…without a movement, without something happening in the streets, without a struggle.” On Labor History in 2:00: the day that American folklorist Archie Green was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and the day known as the East St. Louis Race Riot. Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today…
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Jun 26, 2022
Working People’s Hidden Histories
Dr. Lane Windham moderates a discussion with Dr. Rosemary Feurer and Josephine Ong, M.A. examining the ongoing struggle to create new memorials to labor organizer Mother Jones and the history of worker organizing that led to the construction of memorials to Filipino Revolutionary leader Apolinario Mabini within War in the Pacific National Historical Park. They also explore connections between marking labor's past and contemporary organizing campaigns. Co-sponsored with the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University and Women Innovating Labor Leadership (WILL) Empower. Excerpted from a longer program presented in December 2021 as part of the Monumental Labor series exploring the memory of work and working peoples in National Parks and affiliated sites through their representation in monuments and memorials. The series was organized by NPS Mellon Humanities Fellows Dr. Eleanor Mahoney and Dr. Emma Silverman, and was made possible by the National Park F…
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Jun 20, 2022
Labor history at the AFL-CIO & Labor Notes
This week we find labor history at the recent AFL-CIO convention and the Labor Notes conference. LHT host Chris Garlock and producer Patrick Dixon were at both events and were thrilled to meet so many Labor History Today listeners; please be sure to share Labor History Today with someone you think would enjoy it; that’s how we keep this history alive and how we build the audience for the show. Thank you!
At the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia last week, producers Patrick Dixon and Mel Smith caught up with the Meany Archives’ Ben Blake and Alan Wierdak who were there with a special exhibit about Philadelphia’s labor history. Then, at the Labor Notes conference in Chicago last weekend, host Chris Garlock talked to Julia Berkowitz, from the Illinois Labor History Society, a name many of you will have heard in the credits for Rick Smith’s Labor History in 2:00 segments, here on Labor History Today.
On Labor History in 2:00: Juneteenth (1865) and The Women’s Day Massacre (193…
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Jun 13, 2022
“We Remember You”; the AFL-CIO’s tribute to Rich Trumka
Highlights from the June 11 tribute at the AFL-CIO Convention to Richard L. Trumka, the fiery Mine Workers president who led his union to victory in the historic 1989 Pittston strike, and went on to lead the AFL-CIO, serving as president from 2009 until his untimely death on August 5, 2021.
On Labor History in 2:00: “Team Owners Attack Free Agency”.
Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory #AFLCIOConv
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Jun 5, 2022
Detroit Remains: Using historical archeology to connect the past to the present
From the Tales from the Reuther Library podcast, Dr. Krysta Ryzewski explains how historical archaeology digs at famous Detroit locales – including the Little Harry speakeasy, the Blue Bird Inn, and the Grande Ballroom – have clarified how underrepresented communities of Detroit experienced and responded to the Great Migration, changing economic forces, and a shifting political and social landscape in the 20th century. Ryzweski is an associate professor and chair of the Anthropology Department at Wayne State University, and author of Detroit Remains: Archaeology and Community Histories of Six Legendary Places.
On Labor History in 2:00: “The Big One”; GM workers in Flint, Michigan walk off the job in 1998.
Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted…
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May 29, 2022
The Memorial Day Massacre
(Originally released May 27, 2018) Labor historians Joe McCartin, Ben Blake and Julie Greene remember the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre, when police opened fire on striking steelworkers at Republic Steel in South Chicago, killing ten and wounding more than 160.
Patrick Dixon interviews Tom Sito on the 1941 strike by animators against Walt Disney. Sito, a well-known American animator (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Lion King, Shrek and many more), animation historian and teacher, is the author of “Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson.”
And in this week’s Labor History Object of the Week we take a look at a United Farm Worker banner commemorating the 1965 strike against grape growers in California. The banner is part of the exhibit “For Liberty, Justice, And Equality: Unions Making History In America” at the George Meany Labor Archives at the University of Maryland College Park campus.
Plus we’ve got music by Joe Glazer, the Eure…
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May 22, 2022
Forced labour during the ”Dirty Thirties”
Featuring archival audio interviews and labour songs of the time, our show this week examines the forced labour relief camps the Federal Government of Canada set up in response to the so-called "Dirty Thirties" or "Great Depression." The show comes from On the Line: Stories of BC Workers, a terrific labor history podcast put out by the BC Labour Heritage Centre.
On Labor History in 2:00: The 1934 “Battle of Deputies’ Run,” and Chicago’s first teachers’ strike, in 1969.
Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @BC_LHC
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May 15, 2022
Blood, guts, and organizing
On the brand-new Ironworkers Rising podcast, hosts Anna Woodbury and Ron Gray talk with Rich Rowe and Charlie McCollester, iron workers who got bitten by the labor history bug. Drawing on Rich and Charlie’s extensive experience and knowledge as educators, historians and activists, they discuss historical events such as the Haymarket Square Massacre, the Homestead Strike and more. On Labor History in 2:00: The year was 1942. The labor movement lost one of its prolific voices. T Bone Slim was born Matti Valentinpoika Huhta in Ashtabula Ohio.
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @IWOr…
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May 8, 2022
The Haymarket Martyrs Monument: Past, Present, Future
Someone threw a bomb into the police ranks, who then opened fire on the unarmed crowd, creating a melee of blood and bullets. Within five minutes, the calamitous event was over. “The calamitous event” was the 1886 Haymarket Square Massacre – or the Haymarket Riot, depending on who you’re talking to. As part of the virtual public event "Monumental Labor: Justice Denied, Injustice Remembered," Dr. Melissa Dabakis examines the history of the Haymarket Square bombing. The series was organized by NPS Mellon Humanities Fellows Dr. Eleanor Mahoney and Dr. Emma Silverman, and was made possible by the National Park Service in part by a grant from the National Park Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. On Labor History in 2:00: The year was 1937. That was the day animators struck Fleischer Studio in New York City. It was the industry’s first strike. Music by Jay Kulstad: Haymarket Massacre.
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of…
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May 1, 2022
We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day
We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day is a new half-hour documentary video written and directed by Fred Glass, a labor historian (check out his book Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement) and retired union communications director. Fred is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) East Bay chapter and was recently elected a member of the California DSA State Committee. Elise Bryant and I -- joined by labor historian Joe McCartin -- talk with Fred about the origins of May Day and about the future of the fight for economic justice, and today’s show features clips from Fred’s terrific film.
Also, the 2022 DC LaborFest/DC Labor FilmFest opens today and runs throughout the month of May, with a DC labor history walk, as well as films and music about work and workers. Music by Tom Morello (Union Town).
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@…
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Apr 24, 2022
The death of “Big Steve” Sutton
Workers Memorial Day takes place annually around the world on April 28, an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured, or made unwell by their work. “Big Steve” Sutton was one of those workers, killed on July 18, 1932 near the Marseilles dam on the Illinois River in Marseilles, Illinois. This Thursday, on Workers Memorial Day, a historical marker for “Big Steve” and the 21 other workers injured on that day, will be dedicated in Marseilles. On today’s show, we’ll find out who “Big Steve” was, and why we remember his death and the struggles of his fellow workers all these years later. Our guide is Michael Matejka, a labor historian and journalist, who spoke with co-hosts Chris Garlock and Ed Smith on the Your Rights At Work radio show on WPFW 89.3FM last week. Find out more from the Illinois Labor History Society; music by Tom Morello (Night Falls).
Also on today’s show, a double shot of Labor History in 2:00: The California Spina…
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Apr 17, 2022
Working on Earth Day
On this week’s show, which originally aired April 22, 2018, Joe Uehlein reveals the longstanding connections between labor and the environmental movement; Patrick Dixon interviews Peter Cole on the IWW’s 1923 West Coast strike, Damon Silvers on the arrest of Montgomery Ward Chairman Sewell Avery in 1944, and Saul Schniderman on Ida Mae Stull, the country’s first woman coal miner. Today’s music features Joe Uehlein and the U-Liners singing “You Can't Giddy Up By Sayin' Whoa” and “Power.”
Earth Day 2022: Labor is participating in the Fight For Our Future Rally For Climate, Care, Jobs, And Justice, Saturday, April 23 at 1PM in Lafayette Park in front of the White House.
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock.
#Labo…
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Apr 10, 2022
Big Top Labor: Life and labor in the circus world
There was always something about the circus that bothered me, maybe because by the time I saw it in the 1970s, “The Greatest Show on Earth” was reduced to playing in sports stadiums and arenas, a shadow of the glory days when towns and even cities declared “Circus Day” and closed down so everyone could go gawk at the spectacle of acrobatic performers wild animals and creepy sideshows. But now, thanks to Andrea Ringer, I know that it was the class struggle lurking right there in plain sight, just beneath the Big Top, the spangles and sequins. As Ringer explains in today’s show, the circus was a highly transient workplace, with a long history of exploiting its workers, and in a Zoom talk last month, she examined the life and work of the people who labored in tented shows during the circus Golden Age, from the 1880s until the late 1950s. Andrea Ringer is assistant professor of history at Tennessee State University. Her talk, “'Save the Circus’: Worker Strikes, Circusgoers, a…
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Apr 3, 2022
Michael Honey on Dr. King: “All Labor Has Dignity”
On today’s show, a conversation with Martin Luther King Jr. scholar Dr. Michael Honey. The online talk, “All Labor Has Dignity”, took place last year on April 5, 53 years after Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis and on the precipice of yet another “right to work” vote in New Hampshire. This was at least the 30th attempt to pass a right-to-work bill in New Hampshire in the last 40 years, and Dr. Honey’s talk was organized to remind folks in New Hampshire that not only did Dr. King die while supporting a labor strike, but that he was a strong opponent of Right to Work, which as he pointed out, “provides no rights and no work.” The talk was organized by the American Friends Service Committee-New Hampshire Program and the New Hampshire United Church of Christ Economic Justice Ministry Team and with the support of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO. On today’s Labor History in 2:00: The First Woman in Congress.
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you…
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Mar 27, 2022
Industrial murder at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
On today’s show, we remember the March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York City, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history. From Union Strong, the podcast from the New York State AFL-CIO, “A Day in History that Changed Workplace Safety”; a look back at the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire through an interview with Edgar Romney, the Secretary-Treasurer of Workers United. Then, from Labor History in 2:00, “Industrial Murder at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory”. Next, historian Annelise Orleck discusses the labor-rights activism of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory workers on Democracy Now. And we wrap up with Ai-Jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, discussing the importance of protecting -- and not marginalizing -- our domestic workers today. Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor Histor…
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Mar 20, 2022
Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver
On today’s show, as Women’s History Month continues, historian Jane Little Botkin explains how Jane Street, a single mother, firebrand, and little-known IWW organizer, orchestrated a 1916 housemaids’ rebellion in Denver, Colorado.
To fight for better pay and working conditions in Denver’s elite Capitol Hill neighborhood, Street worked with—and later, despite—the IWW to blacklist and shame the area’s worst domestic employers, thereby disrupting the comfort and reputations of some of Denver’s most influential and powerful families.
The author of The Girl Who Dared to Defy: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver and Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family, Botkin has received two Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, the Caroline Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library Western History and Genealogy Department, and the Best Historical Nonfiction Award from the Texas Association of Authors.
Her story comes to us from…
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Mar 13, 2022
Union women heroes, past and present
Today’s show comes to us from Labor’s Untold Stories, hosted by Marty Horning. As Women’s History Month continues, Marty honors some of the women, both past and present, who have helped build – and who are now leading – the American labor movement. And there’s plenty of good music, too. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Remembering Susan B. Anthony. Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Produced by Chris Garlock.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @CLUWNational #EqualPayWeekOfAction #EqualPayDay2021 #HealthierWithFairPay
Music: The Rebel Girl (Janne Lærkedahl); Which Side are You On? (The Freedom Singers); Fannie Sellins (Anne Feeney); Em…
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Mar 6, 2022
The Radicalism of Irish American Women
Women's History Month is celebrated in March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, corresponding with International Women's Day on March 8. On this week’s show, the Ballot Blocked podcast focuses on the role of Irish American women in the suffrage movement. Many of these women were already veteran organizers. They had led strikes and fought for labor unions in cities across the country. They had also campaigned for land reform in Ireland and for Irish independence. Dr. Tara McCarthy, a professor of history at Central Michigan University and the author of Respectability and Reform: Irish American Women’s Activism, 1880-1920, reflects on the activist history of Irish American women, and how this set them apart from many other suffragists. Ballot Blocked is produced and hosted by Dr. Eleanor Mahoney. Dr. Sylvea Hollis conducted research and interviews and helped plan the podcast. Drew Himmelstein is the producer and editor. Music is by Podington Bear. The project wa…
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Feb 27, 2022
Tragedy and Resistance at Port Chicago Naval Magazine
On July 17, 1944, a group of sailors and civilians were loading ships with ammunition and bombs at Port Chicago, a naval magazine and barracks in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tragically, the ships blew up in a massive explosion that instantly killed 320 workers and injured hundreds more. Most of the dead were African Americans, since racial segregation consigned Black soldiers and sailors to manual labor and service, including the dangerous work of transporting munitions. When the surviving workers were ordered back on the job without any additional safety measures or training, 50 refused to return. The resisters, dubbed the “Port Chicago 50,” were found guilty of disobedience of a lawful order and mutiny and received lengthy sentences and dishonorable discharges. Today, the disaster and its aftermath are memorialized at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, one of a small number of National Park sites that commemorate death and dying on the job. Last October, as part o…
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Feb 20, 2022
Black labor in Richmond
For 150 years, Richmond's place in history has been as "the capital of the Confederacy." But this label hides a much richer and more complex history. On today’s show, we hear from Peter Rachleff, Co-Executive Director of the East Side Freedom Library, a retired professor of history at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and author of "Black Labor in Richmond, 1865 -1890," as he reveals part of that hidden history, that of Black and White workers in the second half of the 19th century. Note: Excerpted from Rachleff’s Feb. 2, 2022 talk for The Virginia Worker; click here for the complete talk.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: Yale Grad Students Strike (2/17/1992).
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Editing this week by Patrick Dixon.
#LaborRadio…
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Feb 13, 2022
The Irish Immigrant Miners’ Memorial
Irish immigrants, who toiled in the silver mines of Leadville, Colorado, in the late 1800s are largely forgotten. Many died penniless, buried in paupers’ graves. But now a Colorado professor has dug up their stories and their struggles. The Heartland Labor Forum brings us a report on the Irish Immigrant Miners’ Memorial. Then, Remember Our Struggle with HLF's Ariana Blockmon, who covers the 1916 Springfield (MO) Streetcar Strike.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: The sacrifice of Rufino Contreras (1979).
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @Heartland_Labor
This week's music: Working Man by Th…
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Feb 6, 2022
City Workers Strike Song
LHT producers Patrick Dixon and Mel Smith head to the Meany Labor Archives at the University of Maryland College Park to check out a special exhibit put together to amplify the momentum of the current wave of labor strikes. In the second half of the show, Dr. Eleanor Mahoney, host of the Ballot Blocked podcast, explores the strong historical connection between voting rights and labor rights; in this episode, we learn about the barriers to voting faced by Mexican American women and workers in the years after World War II.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: Philly Garment Workers Win (1910); Seattle General Strike (1919).
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
#LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHis…
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Jan 30, 2022
“America Works” launches new season
Mario Cervantes, a skilled factory worker -- and proud union member -- who makes the tools that make the planes for Boeing aircraft in Wichita, Kansas, kicks off the new season of America Works, the podcast series from the Library of Congress that features the voices of contemporary workers from throughout the United States talking about their lives, their workplaces, and their on-the-job experiences. Also this week, Saul Schniderman brings us the touching true story of Rex, the Mine Pony, saved by the coal miners who he helped save from a mine collapse (subscribe here to Friday’s Labor Folklore). Bonus track: commemorating the 25 years since the last pit pony left the final deep coal mine in Northumberland, England. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Saul Alinsky (1908); Chicago Gravediggers End 43-day Strike (1992); A Day for Remembering (2011).
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryTod…
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